It is possible to setup a rotating stand studio
quite easily with readily available items.
We will need the following:
Rotating stand
Digital camera with supporting stand
Backscreen
Lighting source
Rotating stand
There are only a
few basic requirements for the rotating stand
used in the setup. First, it should have a circular cross section
(cylindrical disc). Second, the axis of rotation should pass through the center
of this disc. Third, the surface of the rotating stand should be perfectly
horizontal and not wobble when the disc is rotated. Fourth, the disc should be having some thickness, so
that markings can be made on it's side.
You should be able to find a lot of common items that could fit this description.
One common household item
that can be used is the lazy susan which is basically a
rotating table. Most of the time, these are rotated on bearings, which is good
because it eliminates wobbling. And you will find them available in different
sizes, so that you can get one that could hold the weight of the target
model. The christmas tree rotating stands available
readily is another good option.
The first image below shows an inverted penkeeper being successfully used as the disc. Also
shown is a slightly improved stand which is rotated by a slow moving motor whose rotation
is controlled by a switch remotely. This enhancement is such a big
help because you can rotate the stand from the place where you
are sitting and operating the digital
camera. You don't have to walk back to rotate the stand after taking every photograph.
Check out the rotating stands
section at the ajubaa website to look at some more good options.
Marking the rotating stand
Once you have selected your rotating stand, you need to make
some cross marks on it's sides. These marks help IBModeler identify the angle by
which the stand was rotated between the different photographs. You can use any
tool or pen to mark the points, as long
it is visible in the taken photograph. If you cannot make a mark directly on the side of the
disc, you can stick a paper strip on top of it and then make a mark on top of it
with a pen. With some calculations, it would be even better to paste a paper
strip pre-printed with the markings.
Spacing the markings
Mark a total of eight equally spaced positions around the disc, so that each of the marks will be approximately at an angle
of 45 degrees as shown below in the left image. Note that you don't have
to be exact on the spacing. Just try to make the eight markings equally spaced. A
little here and there is fine as long as there is sufficient spacing
between them.
The images to the right shows how
the marking can actually look. The center image displays the case when the markings were
done directly with a pen on top of the disc while the rightmost image shows how it could look if we
paste a pre-printed paper strip with one horizontal line at the center of
the strip and eight vertical lines crossing it.
Since we want our markings to end in a point, it is important
to make the mark using two cross lines so that
their point of intersection becomes the actual marking.
Also note that it is
better to mark all points on the same horizontal plane. This is a
must if the disc is not exactly cylindrical in shape and has different thickness at different heights (see below
figure). Here, a preprinted strip with the horizontal line at
the center makes it easier to keep the markings at the same level.
